Wacko Old testament Laws...why do christians act like all is well?

Question

why is it that every time a skeptic brings up the inexcusable absurdity of the old testament god...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhIU.f8WZ0tW1R6Z4DZ0fJnsy6IX?qid=20070531110853AAGy56G&show=7#profile-info-AA11464702

....christians knowingly skirt the issue, and they point out that mosiac law has been set aside by jesus?

skeptics are well aware that christian theology says that.
why can't you give a straight answer and truly at least TRY to explain why god would be so perverse in the first place?

you tell me to nevermind the perversity of those things because "jesus made those laws no longer in effect,"
well, i tell you that i wan't to know why the hell they were in effect in the first place!!

I've seen time and time again how this has happened, and i think it really shows something that every time the issue is brought up, it seems nothing is ever said about why god said such things, the quick and self satisfied response is that "jesus changed all that"

Answer 1

I don't have a good answer for that. Easiest to be either a smart alec or reapeat the same old tired platitudes.

I have heard an interesting argument that says the God of the OT should not be considered "God" per se, but another name for cosmic law, which is immutable and not to be messed with. Kind of like if you stick your finger in an electrical socket, its cosmic law that you get electrocuted. Period. No compassion. No mercy. Cause and effect. Mess with karma and you get burned, etc. Hebrew writers put a face on that system of justice, (whatever you want to call it) and called it God.

Jesus came along and said, "Hey I've got good news for all us poor schmucks! You know all these 'laws' we got? And you thought the law was God? No. There is a power behind that - a reason we have laws in the first place. Get in touch with that power. Don't be stuck worshipping the laws."

I dunno. Make sense?

Answer 2

Stop asking the same question over and over. I have answered it as has every Christian around. You do not want answers.
You are thinking it is a good point and it makes you look rediculous because you do not accept rational and exact answers.
The OT is not done away with. Jesus did not make those laws no longer in effect. They are righteous laws. There is no perverse thing said. You can quote all the OT things you want and I will tell you why it was said.
Jesus changed nothing except our understanding of the physical law.
Debate the issue here and I will answer here(below the **). Quote away. The OT does not scare me in the slightest.

**If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her." Deuteronomy 22:28-29
On Rape.
Men commonly refused to marry a non-virgin regardless of her choices in the matter. This was a safety to both, affect punishment of rape (you will find in history women were considered second class citizens, God did not make it so, Man did) and the protection of the woman by binding the rapist to someone forever by means of the man's sin. Rape occured less often due to this fact. You can also note this was THE earliest law to classify rape as an evil act deserving of punishment. As Israel evolved socially, so did the punishment become more severe.

I will continue.
** Chel brings up a good point. This was also the birth of our modern family law. You have to remember, this was early man and civilization was very new. Law was just starting and this law was virtuous. If a woman was raped and noone ever married her, who helps her survive once her Father and Mother die? This is a good law.

**
"When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property." Exodus 21:20-21 NAB

They had just come out of slavery. Slavery was all they knew and slavery helped build their status. God never says, 'It is righteous to take to yourselves slaves'. No, he was providing rules, early societal rules, about social interaction. Eventually (as you see in our modern society) slavery becomes totally outlawed and totally irrelevant. If you read back some, you will see Abraham's servants loved him. Being a harsh master was not common, this law was a warning to be a gentle steward. AND defines a punishment for being expecially cruel.
Nowhere does God say slavery is a good situation, neither does he advocate it. In fact, this is a law to enforce punishment on cruel stewards. Perfectly righteous.

**************************
I don't think I need to continue. As you can see, you are highly misinformed and completely without merit in your general argument. I am a Christian and do not dismiss the OT, I explain it.

Answer 3

Imagine being in slavery for 400 years and then you are all of sudden set free, that is always not so good unless given close supervision. We never gave Iraq close supervision they had no democracy for 40 years and now they can't supervise themselves.

Jesus came to fulfill what we could not do for ourselves. He did not do away with the law. God does not give reasons why He does things, but there is always a deeper reason for these laws and you all don't care to take a strong look at the benefit of the laws that are given. Just one illustration: In China today a meat industry has just adopted Kosher Laws so that they would not be giving out diseased meat. If you check out some of the other laws you will also discover valuable other principles that guide these laws.

Sure you can criticize anything you want but you are not being truly intellectually honest. So shame on you.

http://www.carm.org/doctrine/100truths.htm

Answer 4

You obviously have not read the Old Testament. Every word written in the Bible is truth . There is nothing in the Mosaic Law put asisde by Jesus.....

Matthew 5:17 -18 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.


All of the OT points to Jesus Christ the Holy Messiah of Israel.....

Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

There is no issue skirted here. you just need the courage to believe the truth, read God's word and learn the truth....

John 17:17 Thy word is truth.

Answer 5

I'm not God, so I don't have all the answers. I can only say from my point of view that if I created man and gave him paradise with one simple rule and then he broke it, it would upset me. Then we have a world full of sinners that won't heed my warnings...I mean how hard is it not to kill or commit adultery or steal? I send more warnings, plagues, saved a nation of people and they are still ingrates. I would be passed upset now. So we start over again and people still don't get it! So I make it easier on the people and send my Son to die for their sins so that more will have a chance at life everlasting. I think all is well with God but that's just my opinion.

God Bless.

Answer 6

Because viewpoints were different.

If Jesus lived in the modern-day United States along with his disciples and all that, I'm pretty sure they would have written about different topics.

Why were those laws in effect in the first place?
It was a more conservative society that had a family's honor as one of it's top priorities. If you brought shame to your family, you died. I'm pretty sure that's still the same in other countries, Christian or not.

Answer 7

Okay, I am sure that you read that God is a God of love and of JUSTICE?? Now, does that help and why is your question asked so angrily.

By the way, the Mosaic Laws ( Ten Commandments ) are very well alive and apply to all Christians.

Jesus said that He did not come to "change the law!" So, I am not sure what you are really wanting here.

I know, we will certainly disagree but, please do not take that as a reason to rant against God.

Answer 8

The people who say "Jesus did away with all that" clearly have not read Matthew's account of Jesus, who says that anyone who teaches people to disobey even the least commandment shall be least in the Kingdom of Heaven. He even comes right out and says we should be tithing our mint and cumin - although not making those things our top priorities.

Answer 9

So you already understand that Christians are not bound to follow the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic law?
Your problem is that God seemingly commands adherence to laws that seem ridiculous to you? By what standards?

The truth is that God gave Israel these laws in order to save them from annihilation -from disease, from internal chaos/feuds, from warring neighbors and from assimiliation. As newly freed slaves, order had to be established and a legal infrastructure put in place. Crimes needed to be described along with an appropriate (non-excessive) punishment, hence the eye for an eye. Previously, they had lived with "you insulted me, now I'm going to kill you and your children." By making the punishment fit the crime, God was assuring they would not wipe each other out by feuding/vengence killings. Since rape reduced the value of a bride's dowery, financial restitution was important to the administration of justice.

The ceremonial laws were to remind the Jews of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. Man's sin would always result in sacrifice and death. God was to be reverenced at all times. The people were to dress, act and live differently from their idol worshipping neighbors.

The dietary restrictions make perfect sense when you remember that they were leaving the slavery of Egypt with a very limited diet to a new land offering different plants and animals to consume. Restricting meat consumption to "clean" animals reduced illness and death.

Finally, let's address the notion of God ordering the Israelites to "murder" "innocent" women and children as they conquered their Canaanite neighbors. These folks were hardly "innocent babes" -they practiced child sacrifice to Molech, engaged in ritualized perversion and were even more ruthless in their war-making. God, in His holiness and justice, had every right to wipe these people off the face of the planet for doing one tenth the actual evil they did.

This is something that people today seem to forget, they wonder how such a "loving God could do anything so cruel." Bah, God is love, but He definitely hates sin just as much. We would all be doomed if it weren't for His great mercy shown by the death of Christ.

Answer 10

God gave us the Ten commandments and the ten only. The Jews beside the Mt. Sinai, agreed to accept the whole law which you talk about and this was the only way they were saved. No one but Jesus Christ lived by the whole law and that is why he died on the cross for sins. God knew that only his Son could live by the whole law that is why the Jews sacrificed animals to die in their place. This only cove rd their sins but did not take them away. Jesus came and took away the sins of the world.